THE 
 
 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP 
 
 AND 
 
 THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 
 
\ 
 
THE 
 
 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP 
 
 AND 
 
 THE BOOK OF COMMOI PRATER, 
 
 CONSIDERED 
 
 WITH KEFERENCE TO THE QUKSTION OP 
 
 A PRESBYTERIAN LITURGY. 
 
 BY J 
 
 CHARLES W. SHIELDS, 
 
 PASTOR OP THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 
 
 606 Chestnut Street. 
 1863. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/directoryforpublOOshie 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 The Origin of the Westminster Directory for Public "Worship, . 5 
 
 ARTICLE 11. 
 The Presbyterian Revision of the Book of Common Prayer, . 9 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 The General Assembly's Revision of the Westminster Directory, 14 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 Ministerial Neglects, and their Remedies, under the Directory, 20 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 Congregational Neglects, and their Remedies, under the Directory, 26 
 
 ARTICLE VL 
 The Consistency of a Free Liturgy with the Directory, . . 32 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 The Warrant for the Presbyterian Book of Common Prayer, . 39 
 
NOTE. 
 
 The following pages contain a series of articles lately con- 
 tributed to the Preshyterian. It is hoped that their collection 
 in this form, for continuous reading, may add to any interest 
 occasioned by them, and shed some light upon the difficult, but 
 vital question of which they treat. 
 
DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE WESTMINSTER DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, 
 
 Messrs. Editors: 
 
 As attention has lately been drawn, through your columns, 
 and in several ecclesiastical bodies, to our "Directory for 
 Public Worship," I have thought it might interest your readers 
 briefly to review the history and uses, as well as abuses, of that 
 formulary. But few Presbyterians in this country would seem 
 to be aware of its origin, or rightly to appreciate its advan- 
 tages as a mean between the extremes of imposed liturgies and 
 "irregular, or extravagant effusions" in the service of God, as 
 is abundantly shown by the general neglect into which it has 
 fallen. 
 
 It may sometimes happen that Churches will have so far 
 departed, in the progress of events, from their own early 
 standards and usages, that the work of restoration must incur 
 somewhat of the suspicion belonging to that of innovation ; and 
 if any of the suggestions which are to follow, should, on first 
 thought, seem so strange as to be questionable, I trust it will 
 be found that at least they are not mere individual conceits, or 
 new-fangled devices. 
 
 There is also the risk of a certain odium and cheap ridicule, 
 attending any attempts at more systematic and edifying wor- 
 ship, to meet which, all calm, rational argument is powerless. 
 Without hoping to forestall the charge of being a "formalist," 
 "liturgist," or " half Episcopalian," the writer is only anxious 
 2 
 
6 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 to premise and insist upon his full right to the signature affixed 
 to these articles.* 
 
 In reference, however, to any who are seriously interested in 
 the subject, it is but right to say, that the views which will be 
 advocated are believed to be scriptural, reasonable, and just; 
 that they have not been hastily formed, but are the result of 
 some study and experience; and that they are not meant to be 
 here advanced without due caution and deference. It would be 
 too much to expect a ready assent to them on the part of those 
 who have not passed through some similar course of reflection; 
 but it is hoped they will at least be received in the spirit in 
 which they are offered. 
 
 No more will be attempted in this article than a glance at 
 the history immediately preceding the establishment of the 
 Directory. In the Scotch editions of the Confession of Faith, 
 the document has this title — " The Directory for the Public 
 Worship of God, agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at 
 Westminster, with the assistance of Commissioners from the 
 Church of Scotland, as a part of the Covenanted uniformity in 
 religion betwixt the Churches of Christ in the kingdoms of 
 Scotland, England, and Ireland." But, as first adopted, and 
 by law established, it was entitled, " A Directory for the Public 
 Worship of God, throughout the three kingdoms of England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland ; together with an ordinance of Parlia- 
 ment for the taking away of the Book of Common Prayer, 
 and the Establishing and Observing of this present Directory 
 throughout the kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales." 
 These titles, viewed in connection with several previous events, 
 will afford a sufficient clue to its origin. 
 
 While the Church of Scotland differed from the Church of 
 England in having been reformed from Popery by presbyters 
 rather than by prelates, it agreed with it, and with all the 
 Reformed Churches, in adhering both to the principle and to 
 the use of a liturgy. The "Book of Common Prayer" itself, 
 was, at one time, in use in many Presbyterian parishes ;t and 
 the "Book of Common Order," at length adopted by the 
 
 * "A True Presbyterian." 
 
 f Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vi. 580, vii. 388. Peterkin's Records of 
 the Kirk of Scotland, p. iv. 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 7 
 
 General Assembly, had much in common with the Prayer-book, 
 as will appear on comparing them. And even the first pro- 
 posals to introduce the English liturgy into Scotland, were so 
 favorably entertained by the General Assembly, that under its 
 sanction a Prayer-book, substantially agreeing with that of the 
 Church of England, was prepared, though never actually used.* 
 What might have been the result, had these measures been 
 pursued with moderation and caution by the succeeding king, 
 it Avere now simply curious to inquire. But the rise of the 
 High Church party in England, under Laud, (the Pusey of that 
 day,) the revival of many papistical ceremonies in the Church 
 service, and the wild attempt of King Charles I. to impose 
 them by force of arms upon the people of Scotland, soon 
 dashed all hopes of uniformity or conformity in worship 
 between the two kingdoms on the basis of any existing liturgy. 
 It was enough to rouse the Scotch to a frenzy, that the book 
 sent to them was a foreign production, and had not been regu- 
 larly passed upon by their own Church courts, even if on 
 examination it had been found free from errors and super- 
 stitions. The first attempt to use it in divine service at Edin- 
 burgh, was frustrated by a popular outbreak. "Fiery Presby- 
 terians, most of them armed with good broadswords, thronged 
 into the city;" and all ranks and orders, throughout England 
 as well as Scotland, with a contagious enthusiasm, banded 
 themselves together to resist the invasion, and defend the 
 Reformed religion against the fresh inroad of the old hierarchy. 
 To make this compact more binding and impressive, it was 
 preceded by a public fast, and attended with the religious 
 solemnity of an oath ; the whole assembly — parliament, divines, 
 and people, rising at the close of the service, and, with uplifted 
 hands, uniting in a "Solemn League and Covenant,"! of which 
 the following was the first article : 
 
 * Collier, vii. 388; Cook's History of Church of Scotland, Vol 11. p. 336; 
 Calderwood's True History of the Church of Scotland, pp. 5, 663, 715-17. 
 
 f "The Solemn League and Covenant, for Reformation and Defence of 
 Religion, the honor and happiness of the King, and the peace and safety of the 
 three kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland, agreed upon by Commis- 
 sioners from the Parliament and Assembly of Divines in England, with Com- 
 missioners of the Convention of Estates and General Assembly in Scotland ; 
 
8 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 "We noblemen, barons, knights, gentlemen, citizens, burgesses, ministers of 
 the gospel, and commons of all sorts, in the kingdoms of Scotland, England, 
 and Ireland, by the providence of God, living under one king, and being of 
 one reformed religion, having before our eyes the glory of God, and the ad- 
 vancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the honor 
 and happiness of the king's majesty and his posterity, and the true public 
 liberty, and peace of the kingdoms, wherein every one's private condition ia 
 included; and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody plots, conspiracies, 
 attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true religion and 
 professors thereof in all places, especially in these three kingdoms, ever since 
 the reformation of religion; and how much their rage, power, and presumption 
 are of late, and at this time, increased and exercised, whereof the deplorable 
 state of the Church and kingdom of Ireland, the distressed estate of the Church 
 and kingdom of England, and the dangerous estate of the Church and kingdom 
 of Scotland, are present and public testimonies. We have now at last (after 
 other means of supplication, remonstrance, protestation, and sufferings,) for 
 the preservation of ourselves and our religion from utter ruin and destruction, 
 according to the commendable practice of these kingdoms in former times, 
 and the example of God's people in other nations; after mature deliberation, 
 resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and solemn league and cove- 
 nant, wherein we all subscribe, and each one of us for himself, with our hands 
 lifted up to the Most High God, do swear, 
 
 " I. That we shall sincerely, really, and constantly, through the grace of 
 God, endeavor, in our several places and callings, the preservation of the 
 reformed religion in the Church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, 
 and government, against our common enemies; the reformation of religion in 
 the kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and 
 government, according to the word of God, and the example of the best 
 Reformed Churches; and shall endeavor to bring the churches of God in the 
 three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion, Confes- 
 sion of Faith, Form of Church Government, Directory for Worship, and Cate- 
 chising; that we, and our people after us, may, as brethren, live in faith and 
 love." 
 
 It was thus that the Scotch Covenanters, being now in league 
 with the English Puritans, defeated the Prelatical party in the 
 field, and obtained in Parliament the convocation at Westmin- 
 ster of that famous assetpbly of divines to which we owe ovur 
 Directory. 
 
 approved by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and by both 
 Houses of Parliament and Assembly of Divines in England, and taken and sub- 
 scribed by them, Anno 1643; and thereafter by the said authority, taken and 
 subscribed by all ranks in Scotland ^aidi England the same year; and ratified 
 by act of Parliament of Scotland, Anno 1644. And again renewed in Scotland, 
 with an acknowledgment of sins, and engagement to duties, by all ranks, 
 Anno 1648, and by the Parliament 1649; and taken and subscribed by King 
 Charles II., at Spey, June 23, 1650; and at Scoon, January 1, 1661." — Con- 
 fession of Faith of the Church of Scotland. 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRATER. 
 
 AKTICLE II. 
 
 THE PRESBYTERIAN REVISION OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER AT 
 THE SAVOY CONEERENCE. 
 
 The reign of tlie Directory in the Church of England was 
 short. The wave which had brought the Presbyterians into 
 power soon overwhelmed them, and their religious reformation 
 was hurried beyond their control into a political revolution. 
 Having thrust down the Episcopalians, they were now, in their 
 turn, thrust down by the Independents, or Congregationalists, 
 and both Directory and Prayer-book sank from view in the 
 confusions which followed. 
 
 Out of this anarchy, the Presbyterian clergy rose foremost 
 in restoring order and peace, both to Church and State. In 
 London, they issued a public protest against the murder of the 
 king, and rebuked the excesses of the rebel army;* and in 
 Scotland, they recalled his successor from exile, crowned him, 
 and rallied to his standard, in opposition to Cromwell. And 
 now the strange sight was presented, of Covenanter in arms 
 against Puritan, both fighting and praying in the face of their 
 own mutual and solemn league and covenant. 
 
 After a dreary period of defeat and disorder, the result was 
 the reestablishment of the throne and Constitution. * But it by 
 no means followed, that because the Presbyterians had thus 
 been instrumental in restoring the monarchy, they also intend- 
 ed the restoration of that hierarchy which, from the first, had 
 been the only object of their hostility. f Nor did it seem unrea- 
 sonable that the Church of England, in accordance with the 
 national sentiment, might continue substantially Presbyterian, 
 
 * "A Serious and Faithful Representation of the Judgments of the Minis- 
 ters of the Gospel within the province of London." See Collier, Eccl. Hist. 
 ix. p. 357. 
 
 f A Defence of our Proposals to his Majesty for Agreement in Matters of 
 Religion." "The Petition of the Ministers to the King upon the First Draft 
 of his Declaration." "Alterations in the Declaration proposed by the Minis- 
 ters." See Documents relating to the Settlement of Church of England in 1662, 
 pp. 39, 79, 98, 
 
10 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 both in polity and liturgy.* The parliament and the aristocracy 
 were then inclined to presbytery, as a safe mean between pre- 
 lacy and independency. Leading prelates themselves had 
 already favoured a "reduction of episcopacy," to be attained 
 by making the diocesan bishop a sort of permanent moderator 
 of presbytery ;f and as the Directory had many of the rubrical 
 elements of the Prayer-book, it was not impossible to combine 
 the freedom and spirituality of the former, with the order and 
 decorum of the latter, and thus, while securing their respective 
 advantages, also escape their respective perils. 
 
 Accordingly, in the deputation which recalled Charles the 
 Second to the throne, were such leading Presbyterian divines 
 as Drs. Reynolds, Bates, Calamy, Baxter, &c., who presented 
 an address| to the king, in which they said : 
 
 "We are satisfied in our judgments concerning the lawfulness of a Liturgy, 
 or Form of Public Worship, provided that it be for the matter agreeable unto 
 the Word of God, and fitly suited to the nature of the several ordinances and 
 necessities of the Church; neither too tedious in the vyhole, nor composed of 
 too short prayers, unmeet repetitions or responsals; nor to be dissonant from 
 the Liturgies of other Reformed Churches; nor too rigorously imposed; nor 
 
 * "The Presbyterians," says Collier, an Episcopalian historian, "had seve- 
 ral circumstances of advantage to support their hopes. Possession of the 
 chair, the inclinations of no small numbers of the people, the countenance of 
 great men, and the king's Declaration at Breda, gave this party no uncomfort- 
 able prospect." 
 
 "They represented," says Bancroft, "a powerful portion of the aristocracy 
 of England; they had, besides the majority in the Commons, the exclusive 
 possession of the House of Lords ; they held command of the army, they had 
 numerous and active adherents among the clergy; the English people favored 
 them. Scotland, which had been so efficient in all that had thus far been 
 done, was entirely devoted to their interests, and they hoped for a compro- 
 mise with their Sovereign." 
 
 "The Presbyterians," says Neal, who was far from being their friend, 
 "were in possession of the whole power of England; the council of State, the 
 chief officers of the army and navy, and the governors of the chief forts and 
 garrisons, were theirs ; their clergy were in possession of both universities, 
 and of the best livings of the kingdom." See Hodge's History of the Presby- 
 terian Church, p. 25 — 27. 
 
 f "The Reduction of Episcopacy unto the form of Synodical Government," 
 &c. See Documents relating to the Act of Conformity in 1661, and Gala- 
 Day's Life of Baxter, chap. viii. 
 
 J " The First Address and Proposals of the Ministers." See Documents 
 relating to the settlement of the Church of England by the Act of Uniformity, 
 in 1662. London, 1862. 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 11 
 
 the minister so confined thereunto, but that he may also make use of those 
 gifts for prayer and exhortation, which Christ hath given him for the service 
 and edification of the Church." 
 
 "And inasmuch as the Boole of Common Prayer hath in it many things that 
 are justly offensive, and need amendment, hath been long discontinued, and 
 very many, both ministers and people, persons of pious, loyal and peaceable 
 minds, are therein greatly dissatisfied; -whereupon, if it be again imposed, will 
 inevitably follow sad divisions, and widening of the breaches which your Ma- 
 jesty is now endeavouring to heal ; we do most humbly offer to your Majesty's 
 wisdom, that for preventing so great evil, and for settling the Church in unity 
 and peace, some learned, godly, and moderate divines, of both persuasions, 
 indifferently chosen, may be employed to compile such a form as is before 
 described, as much as maybe in Scripture words: or at least to revise and 
 effectually reform the old, together with an addition or insertion of some other 
 varying forms in Scripture phrase, to be used at the minister's choice; of 
 which variety and liberty there be instances in the Book of Common Prayer." 
 
 And the result of this application was "his Majesty's Decla- 
 tion to all his loving subjects concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs,"* 
 wherein, among other pledges given for a proper fusion of 
 episcopacy with presbytery in the Church, was this one con- 
 cerning the proposed revision of the Prayer-book : 
 
 "Since we find some exceptions made against several things therein, we 
 will appoint an equal number of learned divines, of both persuasions, to review 
 the same, and to make such alterations as shall be thought most necessary, 
 and some additional forms, (in the Scripture phrase as near as may be,) suited 
 unto the several parts of worship, and that it be left to the minister's choice to 
 use one or other at his discretion." 
 
 For the assurances given in this Royal Declaration, the 
 Presbyterian clergy of London presented an "Humble and 
 Grateful Acknowledgment"t to the King, who, at the same 
 time, appointed several of them his chaplains, while to others 
 were offered high preferments, none of which, however, were 
 accepted but the bishopric of Norwich, by Dr. Reynolds, and 
 that only on the conditions of the Declaration. ;]; And at 
 length, in due form, a commission was issued for the promised 
 revision to twelve Episcopalian divines, with nine coadjutors, 
 and likewise to as many, the following named, Presbyterian 
 divines, then incumbents of various livings : 
 
 * See Documents, &c., p. 63; Card well's History of Conferences on Prayer- 
 book, p. 256. 
 
 f See Documents, &c., p. 101, and Reliquite Baxterianse, by Sylvester, 
 p. 284. 
 
 J Calamy's Life of Baxter, p. 155. 
 
12 DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 Presbyterian Commissioners at the Savoy Conrerenoe, a. d. 1661. 
 
 Principals. Coadjutors. 
 
 Anthony Tuckney, D. D., Thomas Horton, D. D., 
 
 Regius Prof, of Div., Cambridge. Prof, of Div. Gresh. Col., Cambridge. 
 
 John Conant, D. D., Thomas Jacomb, D. D., 
 
 Regius Prof, of Div., Oxford. St. Martin's, London. 
 
 William Spurstow, D. D., William Bates, D. D., 
 
 Mast. Katharine Hall, Cambridge. St. Dunstan's, London. 
 
 John Wallis, D. D., William Cooper, D. D., 
 
 Sav. Prof, of Geometry, Oxford. St. Olave, London. 
 
 Thomas Manton, D. D., Rev. John Rawlinson, 
 
 St. Paul's, London. Vicar of Lambeth. 
 
 Edmund Calamy, D. D., John Lightfoot, D. D. 
 
 Perp. Cur. of Aldermanbury. John Collins, D. D., 
 
 Rev. Richard Baxter, St. Stephens, Norwich. 
 
 Minister at Kidderminster. Ben.iamin Woodbridge, D. D., 
 
 Rev. Arthur Jackson, Vicar of Newbury. 
 
 St. Faith's, London. Roger Drake, D. D., 
 
 Rev. Thomas Case, St. Peter's, London. 
 
 St. Mary Magdalen, London. ^ 
 Rev. Samuel Clarke, 
 
 Perp. Cur. Bennet Fink, London. 
 Rev. 5Iatthew Newcomen, 
 
 Vicar of Dedham. 
 Edward Reynolds, D. D., 
 
 Bishop of Norwich. 
 
 The discussions in this Conference were mainly in writing' 
 (and are on record,) the Presbyterians bringing their "excep- 
 tions," and the Episcopalians their "rejoinders;" but from the 
 first it was evident that no terms could be made with the latter, 
 and the former withdrew on the failure of the Conference, in 
 the hope of holding the King to his pledges, and obtaining 
 redress in Parliament. Their renewed appeal concluded in 
 these words : 
 
 "Finally, as your Majesty, under God, is the protection whereto your people 
 fly, and as the same necessities still remain which drew forth your gracious 
 Declaration, we most humbly and earnestly beseech your Majesty that the 
 benefits of the said Declaration may be continued to your people; and, in par- 
 ticular, that none be punished or troubled for not using the common prayer, 
 until it be effectually reviewed, and the additions made that are therein ex- 
 pressed. And humbly craving your Majesty's pardon for the tediousness of 
 this address, we shall wait in hope that so great a calamity to your people, as 
 would follow the loss of so many able, faithful ministers, as rigorous imposi- 
 tions would cast out, shall never be recorded in the history of your reign ; but 
 that these impediments of concord being forborne, your kingdoms may flourish 
 in piety and peace."* 
 
 But in this hope they were doomed to be disappointed. In 
 
 * "Petition to the King at the close of the Conference." Documents, &c,. 
 p. 379. 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 13 
 
 relying upon the vaunted "word of a king," they were leaning 
 upon a broken reed; and with the duplicity of Charles, and 
 the servility of Parliament, were thrown against them all the 
 libellous influences in which that corrupt age abounded. The 
 Prayer-book, with its exceptionable features unchanged, was 
 presented to the House of Commons ; and at length, by the 
 close vote of 186 to 180, the House of Lords reluctantly assent- 
 ing,* was passed that famous "Act of Uniformity," under the 
 operation of which, on St. Bartholomew's Day, (now doubly 
 memorable in our annals,) two thousand Presbyterian clergy, 
 then unsurpassed in learning, loyalty, or piety, and comprising 
 names whose praise is still in all the churches, chose rather to 
 quit their livings, in the face of beggary and disgrace, than 
 continue in an establishment unto which they could not con- 
 scientiously conform.! And, at the same time, by one of those 
 astounding revolutions with which history sometimes sets all 
 philosophy at defiance. Episcopacy was established in Scotland 
 on the ruins of the Covenant and Directory. 
 
 * Knight's History of England, Book VIII., p. 801. 
 
 f "St. Bartholomew's day being come, on which the Act of Uniformity was 
 to take place, two thousand Presbyterian ministers chose rather to quit their 
 livings than to subscribe to the conditions of this Act. It was expected that a 
 division would have happened amongst them, and that a great number of them 
 •would have chose rather to conform to the Church of England than to see 
 themselves reduced to beggary. It was not, therefore, without extreme sur- 
 prise that they were all seen to stand out,— not so much as one suffering him- 
 self to be tempted. As this is a considerable event of this reign, it will not be 
 improper to inquire into the causes of this rigor against the Presbyterians, 
 &c. Rapin's Histoi-y of England, as quoted in Collier, ix. 453. 
 
 "On one and the same day, England saw the becoming spectacle of two 
 thousand ministers of Jesus Christ embracing penury rather than stoop to dis- 
 honest compliance. From college halls and cathedral closes, from stately and 
 from humble parsonages, endeared by the familiarity of happy and useful 
 years; holy men led out their delicately nurtured families, not knowing whi- 
 ther they should go." Palfry's History of New England, Vol. II. p. 130. 
 
 "It is not this or that thing that puts us upon this dissent," said Jacomb, 
 of St. Martin's, Ludgate, "but it is conscience towards God, and fear of offend- 
 ing Him, I censure none that differ from me, as though they displease God; 
 but yet, as to myself, should I do thus and thus, I should certainly violate the 
 peace of my own conscience, and offend God, which I must not do. Shall we 
 not follow those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises? Shall 
 we leave the snow of Lebanon for Kedar and Meschech ? No ! let us commit 
 ourselves to the care of our Heavenly Father. Arise! let us go hence!" 
 Quoted in New Englander, Jan. 1863. 
 
14 DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 And thus it seemed that every vestige of Protestant liberty 
 had been swept out of the three kingdoms. The event proved, 
 however, that it Avas but a brief recoil, as if to collect strength 
 for a last triumphant effort. In the year 1690, in the reign of 
 King William, Presbytery again rose from under the heel of 
 Prelacy, and achieved, in the Church of Scotland, that legal 
 establishment which had before extinguished it in the Church 
 of England. The Directory and the Prayer-book were driven 
 farther apart than ever, and the two extremities of the island 
 settled down into those extremes of Protestant churchmanship 
 in which they have continued until the present day. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S REVISION OP THE WESTMINSTER 
 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 Our historical sketch (in which we have aimed at truth and 
 fairness) has brought to view these facts: 1st. That liturgies, 
 or prescribed forms of public worship, were in use in the early 
 Church of Scotland, as in all the Reformed Churches; 2d. That 
 the Directory was, in its origin, a revolutionary protest against 
 civil and ecclesiastical tyranny in such matters, and a conces- 
 sion to the principle of uniformity or conformity peculiar to 
 established or State-religions ; 3d. That it was followed by a 
 healthy reaction — there having been at one time at least two 
 thousand Presbyterian clergy in England who would have been 
 willing to use even the Prayer-book itself, had it been properly 
 reformed and amended; and 4th. That it was finally established 
 by law in Scotland, as the alternative to a legally imposed 
 liturgy, and as the only existing safeguard of a free and spirit- 
 ual worship. 
 
 We come now to its history in our own country. It was cer- 
 tainly not necessary that these extremes, between which the 
 Church was driven in the Old World, should have been repeated 
 on a larger scale in the New, necessitated, as they mainly 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 15 
 
 were, by political and sectarian controversies, -whicli no longer 
 trammel us on this side of the Atlantic ; and it is not even pro- 
 bable that they would have been so repeated, had our fathers 
 been able to free themselves from inherited prejudices, and to 
 foresee the present diversified condition and relations of our 
 Church. As it was, it is well known that in the General 
 Assembly which adopted our Confession of Faith, the most 
 learned and judicious members, such as Drs. Rogers, McWhor- 
 ter, Ashbel Green, were in favour of so enlarging the litur- 
 gical element of the Directory, as to include in it not merely 
 rules and topics, but complete forms for the minister's use, 
 either as examples or materials of divine service ; and the com- 
 mittee of revision actually prepared and reported such a 
 liturgy, and advocated its adoption.* The failure of the 
 scheme is not now to be wondered at, or indeed, regretted; 
 especially since the spirit which prompted it so far prevailed in 
 the counsels of the Assembly as to procure the amendment of 
 the Directory in several particulars. We shall see, if we com- 
 pare our edition of that formulary with the same as first adopt- 
 ed by the Westminster divines, that the additions we have 
 made to it are decidedly liturgical in their tendency. 
 
 In the chapter on the "Preaching of the Word," we find 
 added this much needed caution against the danger of degrad- 
 ing public worship into mere sermonizing: 
 
 •' As one primary design of public ordinances is to pay social acts of homage 
 to the Most High God, ministers ought to be careful not to make their sermons 
 so long as to interfere with or exclude the more important duties of prayer 
 and praise; but preserve a just proportion between the several parts of pub- 
 lic worship." 
 
 In the chapter on the " Singing of Psalms" and hymns 
 (which latter compositionsf are not named in the Westminster 
 formulary,) it is recommended to congregations "to cultivate 
 some knowledge of the rules of music, that we may praise God 
 in a becoming manner with our voices as well as with our 
 
 ♦Assembly's Digest, page 9. Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies, 
 Chap. xiii. 
 
 f The history of our present Uymn-honh affords some instructive pre- 
 cedents in reference to the corresponding question of a Prayer-hook, and shows 
 how steadily the reaction has been going on in modern Presbyterianism from 
 that false extreme into which it was driven in the Church of Scotland. 
 
16 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 hearts;" and to ministers, "that more time be allowed for this 
 excellent part of divine service than has been usual in most of 
 our churches." 
 
 The chapter on "Public Prayer" is made more exact and 
 methodical, the matter of such devotions being placed under 
 several heads, as Adorations, Thanksgivings, Confessions, Sup- 
 plications, Pleadings, and Intercessions; while, as to the man- 
 ner, the use of forms is neither enjoined nor forbidden, as 
 appears from this important amendment: 
 
 "We think it necessary to observe, that although we do not approve, as is 
 •well known, of confining ministers to set or fixed forms of prayer for public 
 worship, yet it is the indispensable duty of every minister, previously to his 
 entering on his office, to prepare and qualify himself for this part of his duty, 
 as well as for preaching. He ought, by a thorough acquaintance with the 
 Holy Scriptures, by reading the best writers on the subject, by meditation, and 
 by a life of communion with God in secret, to endeavor to acquire both the 
 spirit and the gift of prayer. Not only so, but when he is to enter on particu- 
 lar acts of worship, he should endeavor to compose his spirit, and to digest 
 his thoughts for prayer, that it may be performed with dignity and propriety, 
 as well as to the profit of those who join in it ; and that he may not disgrace 
 that important service by mean, irregular, or extravagant effusions. 
 
 The entire chapter on "Admission to Sealing Ordinances" is 
 an addition, and thus extracts the kernel of truth from the 
 error of Confirmation : 
 
 " Children born within the pale of the visible Church, and dedicated to God 
 in baptism, are under the inspection and government of the Church, and are 
 to be taught to read and repeat the Catechism, the Apostles' Creed, and the 
 Lord's Prayer. They are to be taught to pray, to abhor sin, to fear God, and 
 to obey the Lord Jesus Christ. And, when they come to years of discretion, 
 if they be free from scandal, appear sober and steady, and have sufficient 
 knowledge to discern the Lord's body, they ought to be informed it is their 
 duty and privilege to come to the Lord's Supper." 
 
 While such significant additions as these are to be noticed, 
 it is still to be regretted that the suggestions in reference to 
 the reading of the Scriptures and of the Psalms should not 
 have been more fully retained, and that the specific direction 
 as to the use of the Lord's Prayer should have been inconsist- 
 ently, (see Larger Catechism, Q. 187,) and no doubt inadvert- 
 ently, omitted. 
 
 The Directory, as thus amended at its adoption, has remained, 
 without material alteration, our authorized guide in public wor- 
 ship ; but the spirit which ruled in those amendments has con- 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 17 
 
 tinued in various ways to express itself. The insertion of that 
 form in our hymn books, designed for use in divine service; 
 the issue by our Board of such manuals as " Miller on Public 
 Prayer," the "Sailor's Companion; or, Book of Public and 
 Private Devotions for Seamen," and the publication of such 
 works as "Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies," and "A 
 Book of Public Prayer, Compiled from the Authorized Formu- 
 laries of the Presbyterian Church," are marks of a growing 
 opinion in this matter ; to which may be added the more prac- 
 tical experiment of the " St. Peter's Church," at Rochester. 
 
 Even in the mother Church of Scotland, on the very battle- 
 ground of the Directory, the Moderator of the last General 
 Assembly, in his opening sermon,* has recommended and ably 
 advocated a more liturgical mode of worship, as essential to the 
 preservation and extension of the Church in some communities. 
 And if we choose to look around us, we shall see on every side 
 sister Churches and denominations, occupied with the problem 
 of a liturgy that shall retain all that is valuable in the Church 
 
 * He explains that there are many who- "are dissatisfied, not with our doc- 
 trine, but with our external forms of worship. The complaint is, that our ser- 
 vices are bald and cold; that they are ill-fitted to evoke the feelings and 
 emotions which become worshippers; that we come together rather as an 
 audience to hear a lecturer or teacher, than to pour forth our confessions, and 
 desires, and prayers for mercy and forgiveness through the blood of Christ ; 
 that when prayer is made, it is rather that of presiding ministers than of the 
 assembled people ; that they are wholly at the discretion of one man, however 
 mediocre may be his gifts ; that this is in no reasonable sense common prayer, 
 for that they often toil after him in vain ; that through our present system 
 they are made passive and silent, rather than living worshippers, and are 
 not called to confess within the sanctuary the Lord Jesus with the mouth, 
 though it be written, 'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and 
 
 with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' The regulation of 
 
 these different matters, if there is truth in ecclesiastical history, was, at one 
 period at least, left to congregations and their pastors and rulers; and to them 
 it is humbly submitted, this Church might commit such power with greater 
 security than any other, inasmuch as if any attempt was made to return to 
 the forms and usages of a better age, against the mind of a major part of the 
 congregation, or even to the offending of the honest prepossessions of a con- 
 siderable portion of it, we have, through the subordination of our judicatories, 
 ample means of granting redress." 
 
 He adds, " Many clergymen and members of the Church of Scotland, not 
 the least in name, acquirements, and worth, have frequently discussed the 
 matter with me, and have arrived at the same conclusion." 
 
18 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 of the past, and yet be adapted to the Church of the present 
 and the future. 
 
 But the general inference ve ■would now draw from the facts 
 before us, is, that there has always been, throughout our 
 history, what may be called a liturgical type or phase of Pres- 
 byterianism, and that its advocates are of unimpeachable ortho- 
 doxy and piety; being so attached to our Directory as the only 
 safe universal guide for the whole Church, that they " do 
 not approve of confining" pastors or congregations to liturgies, 
 and yet maintaining a voluntary and judicious use of them, in 
 cases where it is plainly needed and desired, to be not only 
 consistent with our standards, but part of that liberty where- 
 with Christ hath made his people free. And if it be asked 
 why so little practical success has hitherto sanctioned their 
 views, we need only mention two reasons as sufficient to account 
 for past failures. 
 
 One fatal mistake has been that of attempting to compose^ 
 rather than simply to compile, a liturgy. The Presbyterian 
 Commissioners in the Savoy Conference, by offering the effu- 
 sion of one mind, Baxter's " Reformed Liturgy," as a fit 
 addition to the Prayer-book, were betrayed into an error, 
 which was most adroitly turned against them by their adver- 
 saries; and our first Assembly's Committee of Revision were on 
 the same path, when they recommended to the whole Church, 
 though only as a sample, a new devotional production of their 
 own, ignoring even the hallowed formularies of Calvin and Knox. 
 Scarcely less questionable is our Church pride and sensitiveness 
 sometimes shown in reference to the Prayer-book, as if that 
 excellent compilation, so largely referable to Presbyterian 
 sources and sanctions, were an exclusively Episcopalian produc- 
 tion, or as if it were needful to repudiate the common treasury 
 of Christian devotion from which much of it was taken. If we 
 intend to act upon this principle in our public worship, we 
 must winnow out of our hymn-book its Roman Catholic, Epis- 
 copalian, and Methodist hymns, and restrict ourselves to Pres- 
 byterian poems, set to Presbyterian airs ; and the reformation 
 will not be complete until we have a Committee on " Ecclesi- 
 ology," (in the pretty sense of the word,) to devise for us a 
 church architecture, less heathen or more Protestant than the 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 19 
 
 Greek or Gothic temples in which some of our congregations 
 are content to worship. The truth is, that, strictly speaking, 
 a liturgy, like a creed or confession, cannot he the product of 
 any one mind or age, or even sect of the Church ; and it is no 
 wonder that good sense and good taste have always combined 
 with true piety in eschewing forms of worship, whether pres- 
 cribed or extemporaneous, which are full of individual conceits 
 and capricious novelties. 
 
 But the other, and not less serious, mistake which has been 
 made, is that of hoping to impose, or in any way introduce a 
 liturgy throughout the entire Church, without regard to its 
 diversified condition. We have seen that our whole history is 
 a protest against the interference of the civil power in such 
 matters; many things in the Prayer-book which were simply 
 indiferent, or even laudable, having been resisted to the utmost, 
 when by law enjoined as terms of communion; and the same 
 instinct of liberty rises against any abuse of even Church power 
 in the details of public worship. The genius of presbytery, the 
 world over, cannot endure any thing more stringent than a 
 Directory, or system of general rules and suggestions; and to 
 picture her vast communion, ministers and congregations, ser- 
 vilely drilled through a course of changing vestments, intona- 
 tions, and demeanors, would be the wildest of fancies. It may 
 be questioned, indeed, whether so simple a thing as an ecclesi- 
 astical recommendation, though it were in favor of the best 
 liturgy that could be framed, would be, if warrantable, on any 
 account desirable. Our Church, as a Church, might find in 
 such appliances a hindrance to her own growth, efiiciency, and 
 spirituality; as is shown by the fact, that the denomination 
 which adheres to an imposed liturgy cannot take it eflectively 
 outside of the cities, into the country, or to the frontiers. 
 Moreover, in a land so vast and varied as ours, any thing like 
 strict uniformity of worship is, in the nature of things, unat- 
 tainable. It is unreasonable that a congregation in St. Louis 
 or New York should have all its appliances of devotion exactly 
 like those of a congregation in the interior of Pennsylvania, or 
 of Kansas, and such a rigid correspondence does not, in fact, 
 exist throughout our bounds. The Church has, therefore, 
 wisely foreborne either to enjoin or to forbid choirs, organs, 
 
20 DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 particular styles of architecture and furniture, or a stated order 
 and form of the several parts of public worship ; and it may be 
 safely assumed that all parties would unite in deprecating any 
 ecclesiastical action in reference to such questions, as not only 
 unnecessary, but an invasion of that constitutional liberty in 
 things indifferent, which we prize as second only to our uni- 
 formity in things essential. 
 
 In several remaining articles we propose to discuss the ex- 
 isting abuses of our Directory, or the evils which have arisen 
 under it, and the available remedies and improvements. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 MINISTERIAL NEGLECTS, AND THEIR REMEDIES UNDER THE 
 DIRECTORY. 
 
 In public worship, the two human parties are the minister 
 and the congregation — the former leading in the service, and 
 the latter accompanying him with the heart, or in some parts, 
 with the voice also ; and, for the guidance of these two parties, 
 the Directory gives certain general rules and suggestions. 
 Let us consider, in this article, the ministerial requisites of 
 edifying worship; and we would do this in no censorious or 
 critical spirit, but only out of love to that Church which is the 
 mother of us all, and from a conviction that the defects in our 
 present practice are already generally admitted and regretted, 
 and all the more readily, because they are not past remedy. 
 The writer, indeed, is simply confessing for himself, as well as 
 for others. 
 
 And let it be candidly asked, at the outset, if our ministry 
 have not, as a body, widely departed from the direction that 
 "one primary design of public ordinances is to pay social acts 
 of homage to the Most High Gf-od;" and if, in yielding to the 
 popular taste for able and eloquent sermons, they are not 
 neglecting the prescribed general and special preparation "for 
 this part of their duty as well as for preaching?" No true 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRATER. 21 
 
 Presbyterian, indeed, would wish to see the pulpit thrust aside 
 in our worship. It is the glory of Protestant, as it was of 
 primitive Christianity; and our Church, in so carefully fur- 
 nishing herself with a race of educated preachers and scholars, 
 has acquired a hold upon the intellectual classes, as distin- 
 guished from the merely fashionable, or the merely vulgar, 
 which makes her the bulwark of all conservatism throuo;hout 
 the land. But while we have thus signally escaped the evil 
 which existed when, according to the Westminster divines,* 
 " the reading of common prayer was made no better than an 
 idol by many ignorant and superstitious people, who, pleasing 
 themselves in their presence at that service, and their lip- 
 labour in bearing a part in it, have thereby hardened them- 
 selves in their ignorance and carelessness of true knowledge 
 and saving piety," may we not meanwhile have lapsed towards 
 the opposite error, of making no better than an idol the read- 
 ing of a sermon, by so allowing it to "exclude or interfere 
 with the more important duties of prayer and praise," that 
 they are degraded into a mere hasty prelude of the preacher, 
 or "disgraced with mean, irregular, or extravagant eifusions." 
 
 Some eminent exceptions, indeed, there are to this general 
 neglect; but it cannot be denied that in too many cases there 
 is neither "a just proportion between the several parts of pub- 
 lic worship," nor any evidence of the required carefulness that 
 they "may be performed with dignity and propriety, as well as 
 to the profit of those who join in them." The matter, form, 
 and arrangement of them have been left to chance or impulse. 
 The psalms, hymns, and Scripture readings, or lessons, are 
 selected at random, or upon no obvious principle; and the 
 prayers are long and rambling effusions of what happens to 
 come uppermost in the mind. All is vague, crude, and unedi- 
 fying; and the congregation, sympathizing with the preacher, 
 are glad to despatch their devotions and come to the sermon, 
 where they can have something more orderly and intelligible. 
 
 It is, indeed, often urged, in extenuation of these evils, that 
 worshippers are, or ought to be, in a less critical mood during 
 the devotional than the more didactic part of the service, and 
 
 * Preface to the Westminster Directory. 
 
22 DIKECTOEY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 certain texts are quoted in favor of the minister's literally 
 taking no thought what shall be said, and relying upon the 
 Holy Spirit absolutely for good utterance, as well as right feel- 
 ing. It would be easy to parry such texts, and to quote coun- 
 ter-texts ; — " God is not the author of confusion in the churches 
 of his saints;" "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray 
 with the understanding also;" "Let all things be done decently 
 and in order;" or to cite that methodical form of devotion, 
 combining both directory and liturgy, which our Lord taught 
 his disciples. But we admit the general principle asserted, 
 while we still insist upon its proper limitations. The most 
 acceptable and edifying public worship is, unquestionably, that 
 in which the minister's form and the people's feeling are 
 directly prompted by the Holy Ghost ; and yet what shall be 
 said of that in which the form does not fully express the feel- 
 ing, but in many ways positively thwarts or destroys it — in 
 which there is no well-ordered system of hymns, psalms, les- 
 sons, and prayers, by which to excite, sustain, and guide devo- 
 tion ; and in which the worshipper is either driven from public 
 into private prayer, or rendered the worst of formalists? The 
 late Dr. Miller, in his work upon this subject,* has enumerated 
 many, but by no means all, of the defective forms or modes of 
 public prayer, such as the repetitious, the tedious, the irreve- 
 rent, the incoherent, the unseaso7iable, the political, the compli- 
 mentary, the didactic, the rhetorical, the sarcastic, &c. We 
 ask, in all Christian candor, if it is not a gross abuse of the 
 doctrine of spiritual gifts and influences, to rank such effusions 
 as utterances of the Holy Ghost, or to impose them upon a 
 worshipping assembly as their prayers? They are not theirs, 
 and cannot be made theirs, any further than they actually 
 express the desires of their hearts, and are, on their part, 
 intelligently and devoutly offered up unto God. 
 
 And this great and growing neglect is already telling injuri- 
 ously upon our whole system. We believe we only utter a 
 common sentiment, when we say that, on the one hand, it has 
 increased the taste for a style of "sensational" preaching 
 which but few ministers can acquire or sustain ; and, on the 
 
 * Miller on Public Prayer, Chap. iv. 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 23 
 
 other hand, has rendered all public prayer and praise a mere 
 foil to the sermon. The pulpit has become the rival of the 
 rostrum, and mere intellectual entertainment substituted for 
 devout communion with God. The people take refuge from 
 the service in the discourse, and the discourse is elaborated at 
 the expense of the service. Whereas, the need of careful pre- 
 paration for the one only exceeds that for the other by as much 
 as what is offered in the form of prayer or praise to God, is 
 more momentous than what is addressed in the form of mere 
 argument or appeal to man. 
 
 Now, the obvious remedy for these evils is to have some plan 
 or method of preparing and conducting the several parts of 
 public worship, by means of which the whole service shall be 
 made at least coherent and intelligible. With most ministers 
 the only plan would seem to be to adapt the lessons, hymns, 
 and prayers mainly to the sermon. But, while this may be 
 convenient, it can scarcely be called reasonable ; for, unless his 
 subject has been before announced, or the occasion itself is 
 suggestive, the congregation are left to grope after him, vaguely 
 guessing his meaning, or else to worship without any intelligent 
 sympathy with him, or with one another. Leaving this princi- 
 ple to be adopted when circumstances require it, a better me- 
 thod, we suggest, would be ordinarily to frame the services 
 before the discourse entirely independent of it, or at least to 
 have some obvious system in which the sermon shall follow as 
 part of the worship, and not the worship precede as a mere 
 vague prologue to the sermon. The reason for this is, that 
 there are certain "social acts of homage," which every congre- 
 gation, on ordinary occasions, ought to offer, whatever may be 
 the particular theme the preacher has chosen. Besides his 
 special instruction, there are acts of confession, supplication, 
 intercession, thanksgiving, praise, and hearing of God's word, 
 which must be suited to the various classes, states, and charac- 
 ters of a mixed assembly, and without which their service can- 
 not be called public worship. And to say that every minister 
 can properly express and conduct these varied devotions with- 
 out any plan or forethought, is to say what every minister 
 knows to be simply impossible. It is for the want of such plan 
 and forethought that large portions of the Scriptures are never 
 
24 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 read in our churches; that there is scarcely ever a complete 
 service in which no part is slighted or exaggerated, and no 
 class of worshippers neglected, and that in general the minis- 
 trations of each pastor are of necessity so impressed with his 
 own individuality, that the people neither receive from God his 
 whole Word, nor can publicly offer to God their whole heart. 
 And though we would not have the ministry, as a body, come 
 under the bondage of an inflexible system, yet we see no reason 
 why any minister might not for himself so systematize the ordi- 
 nary church service as to secure at once his own convenience 
 and profit, and the edification of his fellow-worshippers. The 
 leading features of such a system may be briefly indicated as 
 follows : 
 
 1. He might arrange a yearly course of Scripture lessons for 
 the instruction of the people in the entire word of God, by 
 reading in every service from both Testaments (according to 
 the suggestion of the original Directory,) not necessarily whole 
 chapters, (which divisions are not inspired, and are often too 
 lengthy for a single reading,) but brief portions, selected in the 
 order of the sacred books themselves, or upon some other scrip- 
 tural and rational principle. As Christ is the end and sum of 
 both dispensations, there could be no more effective mode of 
 unfolding the whole divine revelation than that of converging, 
 Sabbath after Sabbath, the blended light oi history ox^di prophecy, 
 oi gospel and epistle, upon the leading events of his life, and the 
 main features of his doctrine. And these lessons might be' 
 separated or followed by a prayer or hymn in keeping with 
 them, or suited to give devotional expression to them. Such 
 an arrangement, besides imparting variety and unity to the 
 service, would also afford that much-needed relief and help, a 
 stated supply of themes for the sermon. 
 
 2. He might adhere to some simple method in the stated 
 public prayers, by at least keeping each class of them distinct 
 and proportionate, so that neither the confessions, nor supplica- 
 tions, nor intercessions, nor thanksgiviiigs of the congregation 
 should be omitted, nor "the whole rendered too short or too 
 tedious." The Directory further recommends, besides the cul- 
 tivation of personal piety, pre-arrangeraent and pre-meditation 
 as to the matter of such devotions; but whether as to the form 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 25 
 
 of them, there should be any thing like composition or compi- 
 lation from the Scriptures, and the best models, is not decided, 
 and cannot be, by any general rule. "Let every man be fully 
 persuaded in his own mind." It is certain, that the public 
 prayers of some of the holiest and most gifted ministers, such 
 as Drs. Green and Chalmers, were often as carefully prepared 
 as their sermons ; and it is equally certain, that the ministra- 
 tions of other eminent preachers would have been greatly im- 
 proved by such preparation. Those who most oppose it, are 
 generally those who most need it. There is much ignorant 
 prejudice in reference to this grave matter. Because the warm, 
 unstudied effusions of a good man, evidently in communion 
 with God, and himself as remarkable for prudence as for piety, 
 are confessedly better than the most sincere recitation, and 
 infinitely better than the mere formal reading of prayers, we 
 absurdly elevate the rare exception into a rule. But there is 
 no practical evidence in our ministry to support the specious 
 pretension; and until the preacher has given proof of an apos- 
 tolic gift of utterance, it is surely questionable whether he 
 ought to leave his follow-worshippers wholly at the mercy of 
 his moods and caprices. 
 
 8. He might arrange the several parts of worship in some 
 natural order or succession, by which the worshipper should 
 be conducted from the simple to the more difficult and intimate 
 stages of devotion; beginning with an Invocation, or act of 
 Humiliation and Confession, and thence proceeding to the 
 Reading of the Law and the Gospel, with Confession of Faith, 
 through the Supplications and Intercessions, to the crowning 
 acts of Thanksgiving and Praise. And sometimes might be 
 used with profit those excellent summaries of these several 
 parts of public service, the Comrnandments^ the Beatitudes, the 
 Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and that well-digested 
 series of petitions contained in the reformed Litany, the whole 
 being preceded by one of the reformed Confessions. 
 
 4. He might both have and use a form in those ceremonial 
 offices, for which the Directory provides only general rules, but 
 which cannot, in the nature of the case, be wholly extemporized 
 — such as the "Administration of Baptism," "Administration 
 of the Lord's Supper," "Admission of Persons to Sealing 
 
26 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 Ordinances," "Solemnization of Marriage," "Burial of the 
 Dead," ko. It is matter of general complaint, if not loud, yet 
 deep, that these solemn occasions are so often marred by crude 
 and random effusions. If only a few well-chosen sentences of 
 Scripture were pronounced at such times, it would be far better 
 than the mere desultory harangues to which intelligent and 
 devout assemblies are sometimes subjected. 
 
 But to sum up all in one word, the minister might have an 
 exemplified Directory or Liturgy of his own, such as was com- 
 mon in all the early and some of the modern Presbyterian 
 churches. If the only objection would be, the labour of com- 
 posing or compiling it, we hope yet to show that this is an 
 objection which can easily be avoided. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL NEGLECTS AND THEIR REMEDIES UNDER THE 
 
 DIRECTORY. 
 
 Whatever may be the abuses and evils in the ministerial 
 department of our public worship, we believe them to be fully 
 equalled by those which prevail in that of the congregation ; 
 and because the latter are the parties primarily interested, 
 their peculiar errors, as well as rights and duties, should be all 
 the more freely canvassed. It would, indeed, be much plea- 
 santer to picture our whole theory, realized both in a ministry 
 endowed with apostolic gifts, and in assemblies rapt in pente- 
 costal fervors; but let it be remembered that the very first step 
 towards amendment, is to deal honestly with the facts as we 
 find them. 
 
 And we, therefore, afiirm it to be as undeniable as it is 
 lamentable, that in many of our congregations a growing sup- 
 pression has been taking the place of all proper expression of 
 devotional feeling. Judging by appearances, in some cases, 
 the great mass would seem no longer to go to church to wor- 
 ship God, so much as to hear choirs and sermons. They sit 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 2? 
 
 between the pulpit and the organ, in mute compliance, while 
 their prayers and praises are performed by proxy. With all 
 our boasted Protestantism, we have in the heart of our com- 
 munion the essence of the Roman ritual, a vicarious service^ of 
 which the people are but auditors, and in which, sometimes, 
 they can no more individually participate than if priest and 
 choir were praying and singing for them in a separate per- 
 formance. 
 
 Some signal exceptions, indeed, there may be to this gene- 
 ral decline of congregational worship ; but the mournful fact is 
 conspicuous, that our assemblies, as a class, neither "praise 
 God in a becoming manner, with their voices, as well as with 
 their hearts," nor intelligently unite in "offering up their 
 desires to God for things agreeable to his will." Those solemn 
 functions have been delegated to the choir and the preacher, 
 in whose hands they have become respectively mere artistic 
 performances, and individual rhapsodies. In many cases the 
 people do not, simply because they cannot, pray or sing ; and 
 the words, "Let us pray," or "Let us sing," are but dead 
 formulas — hints of a duty, echoes of a reality. 
 
 It is sometimes urged, in extenuation of these abuses, that 
 the several parts of divine service ought to be thus committed 
 to qualified proxies, in order that by the free exercise of their 
 superior gifts, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, the body 
 of worshippers shall be edified ; and the example of the primi- 
 tive Christian assemblies is cited in illustration. We need not 
 deny the general doctrine, while we insist that it should at 
 least be carefully and consistently applied. That is unques- 
 tionably the most edifying form of public worship, in which 
 those most gifted in prayer and praise shall lead, while the 
 rest of the assembly accompany or follow them ; but even the 
 inspired prophets and many-tongued psalmists, in the early 
 Church, were admonished by the apostle to be intelligible, as 
 well as fervent, and on no pretence to intrude mere private 
 rhapsody into public worship. So likewise now, the minister 
 may "pray with the Spirit;" but except he "pray with the 
 understanding also," and "utter by the tongue words easy to 
 be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken, for he 
 shall speak into the air?" And the minstrels may "sing with 
 
28 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 the Spirit;" but except they "sing with the understanding 
 also," and "give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be 
 known what is piped or harped?" If it be granted that each 
 "edifieth himself," yet it cannot be said that "the church is 
 edified;" and when it is evident that neither party is edified, 
 but that the public praises are a mere display of soprano, con- 
 tralto, tenor, and bass, by an invisible quartette, and the public 
 prayers a mere exposure of the preacher's own personal feel- 
 ings, and even conceits, prejudices, and errors, "how shall he 
 that occupieth the room of the unlearned (layman or private 
 person) say Amen?". "We sometimes hear the services criti- 
 cised, not less freely than the sermon, as "interesting," "im- 
 pressive," "beautiful," "eloquent," or as the reverse of these. 
 In the name of the Apostle, we ask if this was what he meant 
 by "excelling in spiritual gifts, to the edifying of the church," 
 or if such performances themselves can, in any proper sense, 
 be regarded as "social acts of homage to the Most High God." 
 
 And the natural effect of this vicarious system has been, not 
 only to rob the people of their prayers and praises, but to 
 destroy all wholesome relish on their part for more congrega- 
 tional worship, if not, in some cases, to foster a depraved taste 
 for the impressive, rather than the expressive forms of religious 
 service. How could this be otherwise ? The worshipper, from 
 being a passive auditor, easily becomes a mere critic of the 
 whole performance, and craves only what shall pleasantly afi'ect 
 his ear or his imagination, or readily fall in with his taste and 
 prejudices. According as the choir do their part, well or ill, 
 he approves or disapproves. If he is sometimes "prayed into 
 a good mood" by the preacher, he is at other times "prayed 
 out of it." And thus he becomes more regardful of the human 
 agents in worship, than of the Divine majesty and presence, 
 and loses that sense of individual responsibility, which would be 
 sustained and kept awake, were he expressing his own feeling 
 by actually taking part, audibly and intelligently, with others 
 in common acts of devotion. 
 
 Now, it must be admitted that these are, to some extent, 
 necessary evils, not absolutely peculiar to our system of wor- 
 ship; and that the most direct and effective remedy for them 
 is to be sought in the cultivation of an earnest and spiritual 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 20 
 
 piety, on the part of both ministers and people. It is, indeed, 
 most true, that did both parties habitually live near to God, 
 and come together in the church full of the Holy Ghost, our 
 worshipping assemblies would be shaken as with a mighty wind 
 of holy fervor, and pray and sing as with tongues of flame ; and 
 in times of revival, we are brought to some faint appreciation 
 of this lost ideal. But it is sheer folly, in the face of such 
 facts as have been detailed, to act upon a theory fit only for 
 prophets and psalmists, and even by them only too soon and 
 sadly perverted; and if we would escape that spasmodic type 
 of piety, which at once necessitates and abuses revivals of reli- 
 gion, we must not, in ordinary times at least, disdain the means 
 of normal, healthy growth and culture. 
 
 We would, therefore, advocate the use of any right expe- 
 dients which can be devised for bringing the congregation into 
 more direct sympathy and outward union with the minister, 
 and with one another, in their common devotions. Nothing 
 which can further such important ends is too insignificant to be 
 considered. In social services, such a trifle as gathering 
 together a thin, scattered assembly, into a compact body, will 
 free them from the sense of formality and coldness that would 
 otherwise prevail ; and in more public services, a similar benefit 
 might be attained by bringing the minister down from his stilted 
 pulpit, and the choir out of their distant loft, and more visibly 
 and audibly associating them with the mass of their fellow- 
 worshippers. But without dwelling upon such details, we will 
 limit ourselves to one or two general suggestions, which we 
 believe to be legitimate and practical. 
 
 1. It would greatly promote congregational devotion, or true 
 public worship, to restore to the whole assembly their peculiar 
 privilege and bounden duty of "praising God by singing 
 psalms or hymns, publicly in the church." There is that in 
 the very act of such vocal utterance which is fitted to express 
 and nourish holy feeling; and choirs, organs, choristers, or 
 precentors, only succeed in their vocation in so far as they 
 develope it from the mass of worshippers. It is accordingly 
 recommended in the Directory, "that we cultivate some know- 
 ledge of the rules of music," and that "the whole congrega- 
 tion should be furnished with books, and ought to join in this 
 
so DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 part of worship;" for both of which duties excellent provi- 
 sion has been made in our Psalmodist and Hymn Book. It 
 may be questioned however, whether either Rouse's or Watts' 
 version of the Psalms is to be preferred, either on the score 
 of poetry, or of music, or of devotion, to the literal version 
 chanted by the choir and people. The responsive reading of 
 the Psalter, though only confusing, and anything but solemn 
 to one not taking part in it, has, however, the recommendation 
 that it engages the attention, and helps the devotion of every 
 worshipper; since all may read, though all cannot sing. 
 
 2. It would also be a great improvement, if the congregation 
 could join more intelligently in the public prayers, as well as 
 praises, by being no less positively associated with the minister 
 than with the chorister. We cannot see any such intrinsic dif- 
 ference between the two services as to demand the diverse prac- 
 tice respecting them. If it is indispensable, in the nature of 
 the case, to extemporize the prayers, why not also to improvise 
 the hymns? or if an assembly may devoutly use forms of praise, 
 may they not as devoutly use forms of prayer. The mere in- 
 tellectual effort of composing or following extemporaneous pro- 
 ductions, in the solemn act of public devotion, is very often 
 unfavourable to simple, earnest feeling. The listener becomes 
 entangled with the speaker in sentence-maiking, or is repelled 
 by expressions or sentiments which, to say the least, he cannot 
 readily adopt and offer up as his own. But, could both parties 
 agree, as touching what things they will ask, and unite together 
 in the use of the same words, there would certainly be less to 
 hinder or distract their common act of worship. 
 
 Whether audible responses ought also to be added, as a fur- 
 ther help to congregational devotion, is a question of usage and 
 taste, rather than of principle. It cannot be denied, that in 
 the ancient Jewish and early Christian assemblies, the "private 
 person," as the phrase, "he that occupieth the room of the 
 unlearned" might be properly rendered, was wont literally to 
 "say Amen." And when we hear the fervid ejaculations of 
 Methodists on the one side, and the methodical responses of Epis- 
 copalians on the other, we cannot affirm the custom to be in 
 itself either undevout or indecorous. Nor can it be proved to be 
 wholly un-presbyterian. In our early liturgies, says the author 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 8t 
 
 of "Eutaxia," "the prayers, by constant use made familiar to 
 the people, were to be followed silently, or in subdued tones." 
 The minister invited the people to make the Confession of Sins, 
 "following in heart these words," or "sincerely saying." And 
 perhaps this mental accompaniment and silent Amen are to be 
 preferred, on the whole, either to the noisy outcries or the 
 confused murmuring of our neighbors. The main thing is, 
 that the attention and devotion be easily sustained, and whe- 
 ther the voice join or respond, is immaterial, if only the minis- 
 ter's form, (for some form every minister does and must have,) 
 be so simple, suitable, and well-known, that each worshipper 
 can follow it without intellectual fatigue or confusion, and with 
 a fully assenting mind. 
 
 Besides the Amen in ancient worship was used the Selah, or 
 pause for silent devotion, which, though also designed as a 
 "rest" in the musical performance of praise, might equally 
 well, in accordance with modern usage, be employed for prayer. 
 As there are times or moods in which the minister will be 
 prompted to fresh, unpremeditated utterances, for which no 
 formulary can make due provision, so there may be occasions, 
 in solemn assemblies, especially in time of communion at the 
 Lord's table, when intervals of silence will conduce far more 
 than speech to true spiritual worship. Let us not disdain devo- 
 tional helps, from whatever source they may be taken, but 
 remember that no usage becomes widely prevalent which is not 
 founded in some legitimate want of human nature, whether it 
 be the speechless Quaker meeting, or the occasional revival, or 
 the random Amen and Hallelujah of the Methodist, or the 
 formal Litany and Collects of the Episcopalian. It is rather 
 the dictate of wisdom to cull out the good from the evil, and, if 
 possible, avoid the abuses and extremes of a partial system, by 
 combining occasional free prayer of the minister, and silent 
 prayer of the worshipper, with stated prayers for the whole 
 congregation. 
 
 3. It would complete the ideal we are framing, if the con- 
 gregation, besides thus participating both in the prayers and in 
 the praises, could also intelligently follow the minister through 
 his scheme of lessons, psalms, and hymns for each Sunday of 
 the yearly course, by means of a service-book or manual, com- 
 
32 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 panion to our Directory and Hymn-book. Whatever might be 
 the advantage to the pastor of such a scheme, that to the peo- 
 ple would be ten-fold greater, as it would bring them into per- 
 fect sympathy with him, and render their public worship what 
 it ought to be — a systematic instruction in the whole letter of 
 Scripture, together with an intelligent offering up unto God of 
 those ordinary prayers and praises which are proper to every 
 Christian assembly. 
 
 In a word, supposing such a system of divine service to have 
 been composed or compiled, in any case where the parties 
 should be mutually so disposed, the minister and congregation 
 might agree, under the general rules of our Directory, (as, in- 
 deed, has already been done in at least one instance,*) to con- 
 duct their public devotions by the aid of a liturgy. There are, 
 we are aware, grave prejudices and objections to this, which 
 ought to be duly weighed; and we therefore propose to consider 
 them in another article. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 THE CONSISTENCY OF A FREE LITURGY WITH THE DIRECTORY. 
 
 We are met on the threshold of the question as to liturgies, 
 by a prejudice and a misconception, neither of which we be- 
 lieve to be scriptural, reasonable, or truly Presbyterian. 
 
 Of the prejudice, which does undoubtedly prevail, let it be 
 said, in the first place, that it is by no means universal, but 
 has taken root most widely and deeply in the Scotch and 
 Scotch-Irish portions of our Church. We do not wish to be 
 misunderstood. It is one of the chief excellencies of our sys- 
 tem, whereby its true catholicity is approved, that it is of no 
 mere national or local origin, and cannot be absorbed in any 
 single ecclesiastical organization, such as the Church of Rome, 
 or the Church of England, or the Church of Scotland; but 
 flourishes in all lands, in connection with all races, and under 
 all political systems. Besides the Scotch type of Presbytery, 
 we have the Dutch, the German, the French, and the English ; 
 
 * See the "Church-Book of St. Peter's Church," Rochester, N. Y. 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRATER. 33 
 
 and these several elements have been so fused together in our 
 American communion, and in almost every Presbyterian family 
 that has been long enough in the country, that no true son of 
 such a Church can be suspected of blaming or praising one to 
 the disparagement or advantage of the other. While, there- 
 fore, we hold to the staunch orthodoxy of John Knox against 
 all Papistical superstitions, and pantomimic performances in 
 church, ancient or recent, we may now at least demur to his 
 destructive zeal against a certain Book of Common Prayers, 
 about which his conscience 'was straitened in the time of the 
 Papal persecutions, but concerning which, even then, he could 
 draw from his teacher, John Calvin, no harsher sentence than 
 that it contained multas tolerabiles ineptias (many endurable 
 trifles); and although, as all the world knows, Presbytery got 
 the better of Prelacy at Marston-Moor and Naseby, and was 
 finally only cheated out of the Church of England by a 
 majority of a few votes,* yet we may begin to query whether, 
 when the Assembly's divines came to a word-fight with his 
 Majesty's High-Church chaplains, and so ably argued that 
 presbyters, and not bishops, were true successors of the Apos- 
 tles, we were not, however, somewhat worsted on the liturgical 
 question ; and whether, upon the whole, such learned and godly 
 Presbyterians as Thomas Manton, Edmund Calamy, William 
 Bates, Richard Baxter, did not show better logic and wisdom 
 in afterwards striving to purge out the tolerabiles inejjtias, than 
 to throAV away the gold with the dross. The truth is, that 
 throughout all these troubles, our Church was passing between 
 the two fires of Prelacy and Independency, liturgy and conven- 
 ticle — escaping unhurt, indeed, though not without marks of the 
 flame; and to this day the motto of the mother Kirk still suits 
 the dilemma of her American daughter — Nee tamen consume- 
 batur, with the difl'erence, that we now lean too near to the 
 Puritan, to be in much danger of the Churchman. 
 
 But, in the second place, it could easily be shown that even 
 our Scotch prejudice against liturgies is both unintelligent and 
 inconsistent. The simple fact is, that the Church of Scotland, 
 although at present non-liturgical, is not, and never has been 
 anti-liturgical, but was driven into its negative position by "the 
 
 * See page 18. 
 
34 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 unjustifiable efforts of Laud and his master to force a justly 
 obnoxious litufgy upon a free people;"* and as one of the ill 
 effects of that unhappy controversy, we inherit a morbid terror 
 of everything approaching to form in public worship. But the 
 earlier usage, even in the days of Knox, as we have seen, was 
 very different. "The Book of Common Order, or the Order 
 of the English Kirk at Geneva, whereof John Knox was Minis- 
 ter: approved by the famous and learned man, John Calvin; 
 received and used by the Reformed Kirk of Scotland, and ordi- 
 narily prefixed to the Psalms in Metre: A. D. 1600," has all 
 the elements of a complete liturgy, and contains, in common 
 with the Prayer-book, as parts of the ordinary service, a Con- 
 fession of Sins, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, a 
 Prayer for the whole estate of Christ's Church, &c., besides 
 the marriage service nearly verbatim, the ceremony of the 
 ring excepted. We have seen under what pressure of Prelacy 
 on the one side, and dragging of Independency on the other, 
 we were at length forced away from both these liturgies into 
 the Directory. But it is surely neither wise nor consistent to 
 continue under the dominion of a prejudice due to such causes. 
 There is, however, in connection with this prejudice, a mis- 
 conception which has, no doubt, tended to strengthen and per- 
 petuate it, and which may even remain after it has been 
 exposed, or where it does not prevail. We refer to the com- 
 mon mistake of confounding a liturgy with an artistic ritual or 
 elaborate ceremonial service. The word calls up, in some 
 minds, the image of a Gothic buildings with stained windows, 
 admitting "dim, religious light" — a mysterious chancel, with 
 altar, lecturn, and pulpit, adjusted on recondite principles — an 
 intoning figure in white surplice, with book in hand, and a gaily 
 dressed assembly manoeuvering through the parade duty of 
 certain genuflexions, recitations, responses, bowings, &c. ; and 
 if all this is to be dragged in the net of a liturgy, we admit 
 that our present labour has been in vain. What has been 
 described, however, in previous articles, has nothing to do with 
 such accessories, and would be vitiated by admixture with 
 them. We have advocated no particular style of church archi- 
 tecture and furniture, or of ministerial dress, or of congrega- 
 
 * Eutaiia, p. 250. 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 35 
 
 tional behaviour, and have proposed no innovations in such 
 matters; but, leaving them where the Directory leaves them, 
 have simply maintained that there might be, and, in some 
 cases, there ought to be, in connection with the faithful preach- 
 ing of God's word, a system of common devotions for both 
 minister and people, whereby they could methodically become 
 acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, and statedly, by simple 
 spiritual acts of worship, offer up their public prayers and 
 praises "with the spirit and with the understanding also." 
 With the Presbyterian divines at the Savoy Conference, we 
 have judged that "Prayer, confession, thanksgiving, reading 
 of the Scriptures, and administration of the sacraments, in the 
 plainest and simplest manner, were matter enough to furnish 
 out a sufficient liturgy, though nothing either of private opin- 
 ion, or of church pomp, of garments, or prescribed gestures, of 
 imagery, of music, of matter concerning the dead, of many 
 superfluities which creep into the Church under the name of 
 order and decency^ did interpose itself." 
 
 Such a liturgy we believe to be not only consistent with true 
 Presbyterianism, but a legitimate development of it, which has 
 hitherto been hindered by untoward influences, and which is 
 already urgently needed to defend the weak point of our sys- 
 tem, and equip it for the work of church-extension in all direc- 
 tions. And its judicious introduction by agreement of the two 
 parties concerned, need not occasion any interference with the 
 rights of those congregations which prefer a different usage, 
 nor any more serious diversity than already, and of necessity, 
 prevails in our practice. 
 
 Of the objections that may be raised to such a liturgy, the 
 most plausible is, that it would tend to formalism in worship. 
 We do not wish to slur this objection, but to sift it as thor- 
 oughly as can be, in the absence of a fair experiment, by which 
 alone the question could be decided. It would indeed be but 
 right to first take into account the alternative evils to which 
 we are exposed. There may be such things as hypocrisy, cant, 
 extravagance, and superstition, as well as formality in divine 
 service; and when there is no fresh impulse or occasion of 
 devotion, it will not be strange, it will simply be unavoidable, 
 that, in the absence of a well-ordered form to excite and cher- 
 ish holy feeling, there should be forced or feigned excitement. 
 
36 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 "We are not speaking of what ought to be, but of what are, the 
 facts. Let us not deceive ourselves, but look at the question 
 on all sides, and we may possibly reach the conclusion, that at 
 times a liturgy might prove a help rather than a hindrance to 
 true spiritual worship. When the minister's spirit is clouded 
 and heavy, his written sermon is a great relief, and may even 
 gradually warm him up into genuine fervor, and his whole 
 audience with him ; or if he eschew preparation and paper, and 
 halt and trip in his utterance, large excuses can still be made 
 for one who comes speaking to the people in the name of God; 
 but when he turns to speak to God in the name of the people, 
 is it perfectly reasonable that the devotions of some hundreds 
 of worshippers should be left dependent upon the state of his 
 digestion? The spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak. 
 He might, perhaps, take some old familiar words in company 
 with them, and at least not hinder their devotion or his own; 
 but to absolutely make new prayers for them, ex tempore, every 
 Sunday, under dread of falling into deform of prayer — alas! is 
 it not enough that he should make two able and eloquent 
 sermons ? 
 
 Some form there must be, in all edifying worship. Without 
 it, we relapse towards Methodist extravagance or Quaker 
 apathy. Some form there is in every pastor's made of con- 
 ducting worship. He glides into a service almost as stereo- 
 typed as the dreaded liturgy. It is, after all, the thing without 
 the name ; and the only question really worth considering is, 
 whether that liturgy shall be a good one or a bad one. The 
 advocates of a supposed impromptu service, springing up in 
 perennial freshness, and ceaseless variety, do not seem rightly 
 to distinguish between public and private devotion, or between 
 ordinary and extraordinary states of religious feeling. In social 
 meetings, especially during seasons of revival, or on marked 
 providential occasions, the whole outward expression of worship 
 will indeed be free and artless, and any thing like forms would be 
 felt as an intolerable bondage; but in large assemblies, convened 
 for stated acts of homage, there cannot but be more of system, 
 sameness, and pre-arrangement. Nor is it easy to see what 
 advantage would be gained by an ingenious variety, or capri- 
 cious novelty, so far as that is possible in reference to the 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 37 
 
 ordinary devotions of a congregation, when there might be 
 customary forms of expressing them, which have been used 
 and sanctioned by the learned and godly of all churches and 
 ages ; which being largely taken from the very words of Scrip- 
 ture, concisely express the wants, the fears, the doubts, the 
 hopes, and the joys of all Christians; and which are marked 
 by a simple majesty of style, a chaste fervour, tenderness, and 
 solemnity, utterly unknown in any modern compositions. In 
 the open, voluntary use of such helps to devotion, both parties 
 might find a mutual relief and profit, which must be foregone so 
 long as either the people are at the mercy of random effusions, 
 or the minister is hampered with a surreptitious form of his 
 own. 
 
 We may add, that the objection now under consideration is 
 not supported by facts. Some of the most spiritually-minded 
 men that ever lived, have used and contended for a liturgy; but 
 formalists will be formal under any system. 
 
 Another and kindred objection is, that a liturgy would 
 repress all originality on the part of the minister, and foster a 
 deadly monotony in his services. The life of public worship, 
 it is argued, consists in that vivid impression made by an 
 earnest speaker, with heart aglow, and voice and tone sponta- 
 neously giving forth every petition as an expression of his own 
 personal feeling. Such prayers, it is said, are more "interest- 
 ing," "solemn," or "touching," than any recited form, how- 
 ever appropriate. We admit this personal or individual ele- 
 ment to be a great advantage in the sermon, and even, with 
 proper limitations, in the service. The very best preaching 
 and praying are confessedly extemporaneous, and also the very 
 worst. It depends entirely upon the person, the mood, the 
 occasion, and the circumstances; and when all of these are not 
 perfectly favorable, then the question presents another aspect. 
 The Apostle's rule is, "Let all things be done to edifying;" 
 and there may be, as we have seen, individual peculiarities or 
 originalities in public prayer which are not edifying. Because 
 the broken, confused utterances of some private suppliant are 
 far better for him than any form, it does not follow that they 
 will also be more edifying to a whole assembly, nor is it quite 
 clear that any sentimental advantage or pathetic interest gained 
 4 
 
38 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 by their exposure, is not more than balanced by the risk of a 
 certain vanity, embarrassment, or indelicacy, on the one side, 
 together "with a certain admiration, regret, or pity, on the other. 
 Ah ! it may be pardonable in us to like to hear a good sermon ; 
 but is it worshipping God to love to hear how well a man can 
 pray? and do we not sometimes see the "gift of prayer" with- 
 out the grace, as well as the grace without the gift? 
 
 Moreover, the objection we are considering is valid only on 
 the assumption, that the minister is so slavishly tied down to 
 rules and forms, that he cannot, when the fresh mood or new 
 occasion prompts him, break away from them into more spon- 
 taneous services. It would, of course, be impossible to frame 
 either directions or samples for every possible emergency ; and 
 the only proper design of a liturgy is, to give edifying expres- 
 sion to those stated public devotions which are in their nature 
 fixed and invariable, while all the benefits of the most informal 
 worship may still be sufiiciently retained in the lecture and 
 prayer-meetings during the week, or in the second service on 
 the Lord's day, as well as by blending free with stated prayer, 
 on all occasions, at discretion. 
 
 A far more specious scruple is, that liturgies foster an " aes- 
 thetic" form of devotion, or cultivate the taste and imagination 
 at the expense of the heart and conscience. Some persons, it 
 is asserted, are of a liturgical temperament, and by dwelling 
 critically upon the form in distinction from the matter or spirit 
 of worship, at length become so fastidious, that they cannot 
 worship God unless it be in good English, and with all the 
 little outward proprieties carefully adjusted ; and this, it is 
 hinted, is a weakness and folly, which ought to be mortified as 
 one of the remainders of the old Adam. 
 
 Now, it need not be denied that there may be an excess of 
 even so good a thing as good taste; but, on the other hand, it 
 cannot be denied that the holiest things may be spoiled by so 
 trifling a thing as a little bad taste. And when old-fashioned 
 Presbyterians, or their descendants, are found worshipping in 
 imitation Parthenons or Westminster Abbeys, with the aid of 
 costly music and oratory, we ask if it is not simply a question 
 of good sense, and of the most ordinary piety, what shall be 
 the literary or intellectual character of their liturgy; and 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 89 
 
 whether, on the whole, it would not be wiser and more profita- 
 ble, not to say in better taste, either to lay aside all these fine 
 artistic surroundings, and relapse to Rouse and the precentor, 
 two hours' sermons, and half-hour prayers, or else to find vent 
 for the irrepressible "aesthetic" element, where it better com- 
 ports with our system, in the form of a reasonable service ? 
 
 No one, who thinks and observes, believes that true taste 
 and true devotion are in their nature antagonistic, or that 
 where they are found together, they can be rigorously driven 
 apart. A congregation accustomed to refinement in their 
 homes, will have it also in their church; and experience has 
 shown, that, while a liturgy may indeed be more edifying to 
 cultivated and intellectual Christians, than "mean, irregular, 
 or extravagant efiusions," yet it may also unite together all 
 tastes, good, bad, and indifferent. 
 
 As to the objection, that it would cost us something of 
 church pride and consistency, or expose us to ridicule as imi- 
 tators, it is enough to say, in view of the historical facts already 
 presented, that the sooner all parties are rid of this idea the 
 better. 
 
 The only remaining difficulty we now think of is, the want of 
 a suitable manual or service-book, sanctioned by sufficient 
 Presbyterian authority to insure its orthodoxy, and encourage 
 its use. We believe this objection to be the most serious that 
 can be raised; but by no means insuperable, as we hope may 
 appear in our next and last article. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 THE WARRANT FOR THE PRESBYTERIAN VERSION OF THE PRAYER 
 
 BOOK. 
 
 In previous articles we have advocated these three means 
 of correcting and improving our public worship ; — 1st. In all 
 cases a careful attention to the rules and suggestions of the 
 Directory ; 2d. In many cases a system of services, with forms 
 or examples, composed or compiled by the minister for his own 
 assistance ; 3d. In some cases, where the parties are so agreed, 
 
40 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 a liturgy, or scheme of common devotions, for both minister 
 and congregation, containing not merely psalms and hymns, 
 and Directory, but tables of Scripture lessons, forms of stated 
 prayer, and of administration of the sacraments, and other 
 rites of the Church. And in this concluding article, we desire 
 now to show that either or all of these advantages can be 
 secured in an edition of the Book of Common Prayer, as revised 
 by the Royal Commission of Presbyterian divines, at the Savoy 
 Conference, A. D. 1661, and in agreement with our Directory 
 for Public Worship. 
 
 As this was with the writer no foregone conclusion, but a 
 wholly unforeseen result of some studies and efforts in the 
 direction of a truly Presbyterian liturgy, he begs the reader, 
 who has followed him thus far, to candidly review the several 
 historical facts upon which it is based, and the arguments up- 
 holding it. 
 
 1. The Prayer-hooh was set aside for the Directory hy the 
 Westminster divines on avowed 'principles which admit of its 
 resumption. In their Preface, after recounting the evils then 
 arising out of its forcible imposition upon the churches, they 
 thus declared their motives: 
 
 " Upon these, and many the like weighty considerations, in reference to 
 the whole Book in general, and because of divers particulars contained in it ; 
 not from any love to novelty, or intention to disparage our first reformers, (of 
 whom we are persuaded that, were they now alive, they would join with us in 
 this work, and whom we acknowledge as excellent instruments, raised by God, 
 to begin the purging and building of his house, and desire they may be had of 
 us and posterity in everlasting remembrance, with thankfulness and honor,) 
 but that we may, in some measure, answer the gracious providence of God, 
 which at this time calleth upon us for further reformation, and may satisfy 
 our own consciences, and answer the expectation of other reformed churches, 
 and the desires of many of the godly among ourselves, and withal give some pub- 
 lic testimony of our endeavors for uniformity in Divine worship, which we have 
 promised in our 'Solemn League and Covenant.' We have, after earnest and 
 frequent calling upon the name of God, and after much consultation, not with 
 flesh and blood, but with his holy word, resolved to lay aside the former 
 liturgy, with the many rites and ceremonies, formerly used in the worship of 
 God, and have agreed upon this following Directory for all the parts of public 
 worship, at ordinary and extraordinary times." 
 
 We believe that both the spirit and the letter of these cau- 
 tious declarations favor the point we are arguing. When it 
 is remembered that the Directory was mainly a semi-political 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 41 
 
 device, resulting from the opposite forces of prelacy and inde- 
 pendency, and that it utterly failed to secure the " covenanted 
 uniformity," for ■which it was orignally framed ; and when it 
 is remembered that the objections therein enumerated against 
 the Prayer-book, such as the imposition of things indifferent as 
 terms of communion, the suppression of free prayer and 
 preaching, the obtrusion of new papistical ceremonies, and the 
 maintenance of an unedifying, beneficed clergy, were charge- 
 able to the mere political and sectarian surroundings of the 
 Book, rather than to its contents, duly purged and amended ; 
 and when, moreover, it is remembered that we, in this land 
 and age of greater light and freedom, are no longer harassed 
 by the untoward influences, and driven to the rash extremes, 
 which this liturgy then occasioned, and that all former difficul- 
 ties in regard to its use, in our present necessities and opportu- 
 nities, have subsided into mere inherited prejudices; we shall 
 Surely not be inconsistent, to say the least, if we return to it 
 as to the work of our revered forefathers, and thereby again 
 illustrate our dearly bought liberty, as well to resume and 
 modify it, as to lay it aside according to the varying exigency 
 of times and occasions. And, lest it be thought we misrepre- 
 sent them, let the simple fact which afterwards followed be 
 next considered. 
 
 2. The Prayer-hook ivas actually revised hy the framers of 
 the Directory, and their descendants, with a view to its resump- 
 tion. Among the Presbyterian Commissioners at the Savoy 
 Conference, were some of the most distinguished Westminster 
 divines;* their specimen of a "Reformed Liturgy" was taken 
 exclusively from the Bible, the Directory, and the Prayer- 
 book; and their own immortal writings still rank among our 
 standards of orthodoxy and piety. Both as scholars and theo- 
 logians they were unequalled, either then or since, and were 
 not despised even by their adversaries, who proffered them the 
 highest honors of that Church establishment which, with the 
 spirit of martyrs, they afterwards abandoned. It cannot be 
 charged, much less proved upon such men, that they were of a 
 compliant or compromising temper. "While, as they declared, 
 
 * Tuckney, Calamy, Spurstow, Wallis, Case, Reynolds, Newcomen, Conant, 
 Lightfoot, etc. 
 
 4* 
 
42 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 they had "not the least thought of depraving or reproaching 
 the Book of Common Prayer," yet their "exceptions" against 
 it were not only "general," but "particular" or verbal, with a 
 degree of scrupulous minuteness that would now be deemed 
 superfluous; and these "exceptions," having never been fairly 
 acted upon by both parties, have come down to us without a 
 trace or taint of concession. We have, in fact, all the mate- 
 rials of a thoroughly Presbyterian edition of the Prayer-book 
 in the form of such historical documents as the following: 
 
 1. "The King's Warrant for the Conference at the Savoy." 
 
 2. "The Exceptions of the Presbyterian Ministers against the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer," (including a written criticism upon both text and rubric, with 
 proposed alterations, emendations, and additions.) 
 
 3. "The Answer of the Bishops to the Exceptions of the Ministers." 
 
 4. "The Petition for Peace and Concord, presented to the Bishops, with the 
 proposed Reformation of the Liturgy." 
 
 5. "The Rejoinder of the Ministers to the Answer of the Bishops — the 
 Grand Debate between the most Reverend the Bishops and the Presbyterian 
 Divines, appointed by his sacred Majesty, as Commissioners for the Review 
 and Alteration of the Book of Common Prayer, &c., being an exact account 
 of their whole proceedings. The most perfect copy. London, 1661 : pp. 
 1—148."* 
 
 The Book, as revised and amended by the aid of these docu- 
 ments, could not be chargeable with any private or modern 
 fancies, but would embody the matured suggestions of learned 
 and godly men, who were lawfully charged with the work of 
 revision, and who, in that good work, endured great temptation 
 and persecution. And the whole, besides being a worthy 
 memorial of our Church forefathers, would be at least as truly 
 Presbyterian as our present service-book, which contains a 
 Directory of Worship, originally framed by ordained ministers 
 of the Church of England, "with the assistance of Commission- 
 ers from the Church of Scotland, "f and a collection of hymns 
 
 * As collateral aids may also be used, the present English Prayer-book, 
 with its Presbyterian emendations, for which the most reverend Bishops in 
 their Preface thought fit to apologize; the proposed Prayer-book of 1689, 
 which was framed in consultation with the leaders of the ejected Presbyte- 
 rians, and which, in the opinion of Calamy, would have satisfied more than 
 two-thirds of their number; and the different Presbyterian editions, dating 
 before the Savoy Conference, especially the Second Book of King Edward VI., 
 to which the Presbyterian Commissioners constantly appealed. 
 
 f Of the one hundred and twenty divines in the Westminster Assembly, five 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 43 
 
 compiled from all accessible sources. But the last shred of an 
 objection, on the score of consistent Presbyterianism, must dis- 
 appear before our next consideration. 
 
 3. As the Directory is but a skeleton of the Prayer-book, so 
 the Prayer-hooh itself is hut a compilation which is more Pres- 
 hyterian than Episcopalian in its sou7'ces. We mean simply to 
 say that, leaving out of view those portions which belong exclu- 
 sively to neither party, but have been sanctioned and used by 
 both, (being derived from ancient Christian liturgies, and from 
 Lutheran formularies,) the remainder, which is by no means 
 inconsiderable in character or quantity, is almost entirely Pres- 
 byterian. This is unquestionably true of the Book as it stood 
 at the time of the Savoy Conference, and it is sufficiently true, 
 for this argument, of the Book as it is now familiar to the Ame- 
 rican reader ; as will appear by the following references, taken 
 from Anglican authorities alone. 
 
 The Exhortation, General Confession, Declaration of Abso- 
 lution, and General Thanksgiving, in the Order for Daily 
 Prayer, and the Ten Commandments as they appear in the 
 Ante-Communion Office, are admitted to be of Calvinistic 
 origin.* All that remains (except the apocryphal Song and 
 
 were Commissioners from the Church of Scotland, six or seven were Independ- 
 ents, several were Episcopalians, and the remainder were English Presbyterians. 
 
 * It is generally conceded that these services, as used in the reformed 
 churches, originated with Calvin, and were copied into the Anglican Church 
 from his Strasburg Liturgy, as translated by his successor PoUanus, and by 
 A. Lasko, both of whom were Calvinists and refugee pastors, with their con- 
 gregations worshipping in England at the time the first Prayer-book was fur- 
 ther reformed and amended. See History of the Prayer-book, by Archdeacon 
 Berens, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, pages 
 39, 41, 43, 87, 88, 141, 155 — 8; Archbishop Laurence's Bampton Lectures, 
 p. 207 — 10; Freeman's "Principles of Divine Service," vol. I., p. 313; Proc- 
 tor's Hist, of Prayer-book, pp. 48 and 49, note ; " Private Prayers in the 
 Reign of Queen Elizabeth ;" Parker Society, p. 488, note ; Strype's Eccl. 
 Mem, Vol. II., p. 2, 33; Burnet's Hist, of Ref., p. 415; Strype's Life of 
 Cranmer, p. 200, and Appendix; Heyliu's Hist, of Ref., Pub. by Eccl Hist. 
 Society, Vol. I., pp. 193, 226, 270, etc. 
 
 The General Thanksgiving was composed by Reynolds, one of the Presbyte- 
 rian Commissioners at the Savoy Conference. See Proctor's Hist, of Prayer- 
 book, p. 263, and authorities there quoted. 
 
 The Litany, when it diS'ers from the ancient form, is in almost every 
 instance taken from Bucer's translation. See any of the above writers. 
 
 The Epistles and Gospels were rendered in their present translation at the 
 instance of the Presbyterian Commissioners. See as above. 
 
44 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 Lessons,) viz., the Te Deum, the Litany, the Creeds, the Col- 
 lects, Epistles, and Gospels, have passed from their ancient 
 sources through Presbyterian sanctions, and under a Presbyte- 
 rian revision, to their present form. In other words, the -whole 
 Lord's day service, as usually performed, contains but a single 
 prayer* that can be traced to a distinctively Episcopalian ori- 
 gin ; and for the obvious reason, partly, that that service was 
 framed before the assertion of Prelacy against Presbytery 
 arose, and also that its Protestant additions and emendations 
 are almost exclusively from Calvinistic sources. 
 
 In the Occasional Offices of Baptism, Matrimony, Visitation 
 of the Sick, and Burial of the Dead, the question of authorship 
 lies between the Calvinist and the Lutheran, or between the 
 French and the German Protestant, rather than between the 
 Presbyterian and the Episcopalian. While portions of those 
 formularies are clearly traceable to the Cologne liturgy of the 
 Calvinistict Bucer and Melancthon, yet, having thus origi- 
 nated outside of the pretentious Anglican Prelacy, they 
 belong to the general class of Reformed or Protestant non- 
 Episcopal rituals, and as such, might have continued in 
 actual use, but for certain doubtful expressions and supersti- 
 tious ceremonies, by which they were vitiated, and from which 
 our ecclesiastical fathers in the Savoy Conference strove to 
 purge them. 
 
 As to the Psalter, it is well known that it was first restored 
 to the people, in the form of congregational psalmody, in the 
 Church of Geneva, from whence it was copied, as a popular 
 element of worship in the English churches. 
 
 Of the whole compilation, indeed, except the Ordinal or 
 ordination services, and several political or State services, 
 added after the Savoy Revision, it is safe to affirm, that were 
 
 * Even this exception is doubtful. The " Prayer for all Conditions of Men," 
 by whomsoever composed, originated in the Presbyterian Revision, and was 
 evidently modelled upon, if not largely quoted from, Calvinistic prayers, 
 already authorized and domesticated in England. Compare Proctor's Hist, of 
 Prayer-book, p. 262, with Liturgical Services Qn. Eliz., p. 266, and Eutaxia, 
 pp. 157, 38, 39. 
 
 ■}• Zurich Letters, 1st Series, pp. 161, 234. 2d Series, pp. 73, 120. Orig. Letters 
 of Reformation, 488, 535, 544—548, 585, 688., Pub. by Parker Society. Cal- 
 vin's Tracts, Vol. XL, 281, 354—356, 496. Burnet's Hist, of Ref., p. 405. 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRATER. 45 
 
 it amended according to that revision, it would be as thor- 
 oughly Presbyterian in its historical sources as well as sanc- 
 tions, and, in fact, in every thing but its present popular asso- 
 ciations, as the book now used in our pulpits and pews. The 
 almost universal impression to the contrary has arisen out of 
 the false assumption that our forefathers were as much opposed 
 to liturgy as Prelacy, or to the literary contents of the Prayer- 
 book, as to the tyrannical and superstitious rites accompanying 
 it. It is forgotten, or no longer known among us, that the 
 Presbyterian Church in England, with her two thousand clergy, 
 her scholars, divines, and patriots of illustrious memory, her 
 prestige of learning, rank, and power, in the act of giving up, 
 for conscience' sake, the high places and rich livings of an 
 establishment which owed its restoration to her loyalty, also 
 abandoned a liturgy to which her ministers had an hereditary 
 right, upon which their adversaries were legally compelled to 
 meet them in conference for their satisfaction, and which, 
 at the same time, they declared they had "not the least 
 thought of depraving or reproaching." And this hard alter- 
 native into which they were driven by the exigencies of a 
 State religion, in an age of sectarian rancor and violence, 
 we have thoughtlessly accepted and continued as our sole, 
 normal condition. But surely, after two centuries of peaceful 
 progress, in another country, under a government of equal 
 laws, and in the midst of spontaneous tendencies towards a 
 free, spiritual liturgy, it is high time to ask if there be not 
 some safe mean between the wild extremes from which we have 
 so happily escaped, and whether history has not reserved it as 
 a just providential compensation, that we should now enter into 
 the labors, while we vindicate the fame, of those faithful men 
 " of whom the world was not worthy." 
 
 4. Our last and conclusive argument is, that the Prayer-book, 
 thus revised, with our American Directory in place of the 
 English Rubric, is the only Preshyterian liturgy that is either 
 desirable or j^racticable. After what we have stated as to the 
 origin and history of that compilation, we shall not now be 
 suspected of any disloyalty in affirming that, with all its faults, 
 it is simply incomparable. No one who studies the subject, 
 historically and philosophically, can fail to see that it meets 
 
46 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, AND 
 
 the needs of ordinary divine service better than any other 
 formulary that has ever been devised, or become widely preva- 
 lent. A fresh worker in this ifield, taking as his ideal of Chris- 
 tian worship a scheme of stated forms, which should express, in 
 simple Scripture phrase, the common needs of a church assem- 
 bly, and be redolent of the communion of saints in all lands 
 and ages — such a worker, after all the thought and research he 
 can bestow upon the question, at length finds that he has been 
 anticipated by a book which is framed to fit the mould of the 
 universal Christian heart, which is wrought out of the warp 
 and woof of ancient and modern piety, which contains the 
 cream of all liturgies, both of our own and of other churches, 
 and which has lingering about it a savour of pure and fervent 
 devotion belonging to no other uninspired composition. If he 
 loves our English Bible, he must also love that English liturgy 
 which was the product of the same age, and in the same sacred 
 style. To attempt now any better devotional phraseology 
 would be as vain as to frame a better version of the Holy 
 Scriptures. To attempt any different compilation would be 
 but to glean in fields already reaped and garnered; and to 
 attempt any ingenious recomposition of its materials, would be 
 but to incur the odium of imitation or invasion, where we ought 
 rather to assert an original right of property and inheritance. 
 It has, in fact, been the chief mistake of our liturgical writers 
 hitherto, that, from a well-meant fear of concession or intru- 
 sion, they have so generally striven to ignore a collection which 
 has. been culled from the gathered wisdom and piety of the 
 Church universal, and which, after all that has been said and 
 done against it, has continued, for these several centuries past, 
 the only Christian liturgy deserving the name. 
 
 We know very well, indeed, that as now viewed by Presby- 
 terians, it has many serious blemishes and inconveniences, and 
 even pernicious errors, the still remaining dross of the furnace 
 through which it has passed; but none of these, it will be found, 
 have escaped the searching revision and thorough expurgation 
 of the Savoy divines, or need encumber it in the hands of those 
 who are not trammelled with inflexible rubrics. As combined 
 
 « 
 
 with a Directory, allowing to the minister his liberty to remedy, 
 at discretion, the tedious length and multiplicity of its services, 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 47 
 
 and neither requiring nor precluding responses, on the part of 
 the congregation, nor indeed demanding any other behaviour 
 than is already customary in our assemblies, it would, we hon- 
 estly believe, be the best liturgy that could be desired, or now 
 devised. 
 
 We will even go further, and declare our conviction that, as 
 it is the only liturgy fit to be used, so it is the only one that 
 can be used with any thing like Presbyterian consistency. The 
 nature of our system, and the nature of the exigency, combine 
 to shut us up to this alternative. On the one hand the wise, 
 generous spirit of our system will not allow the whole Church 
 to be hampered with any thing more liturgical than a Direc- 
 tory ; and, on the other hand, the exigency to be met is such, 
 that it cannot be fully supplied by mere private or voluntary 
 efforts. For any single pastor to compose a liturgy, would be 
 as absurd as to compose a hymn-book ; and for him to compile 
 one, exclusive of the Prayer-book, would be as impossible as to 
 compile a new creed or psalter. No man or body of men now 
 living could frame any better, or any other formulary, at all 
 answering to the proper idea of a liturgy, than that which our 
 ecclesiastical forefathers in England have first revised, and 
 then bequeathed to us, invested with the halo of martyrdom ; 
 and by adopting it as the fruit of their orthodoxy, learning 
 and piety, while we gain all the advantages of authority, anti- 
 quity, catholicity, and perfect fitness, we sacrifice neither our 
 liberty, nor our just pride as Presbyterians. 
 
 Nor could its use in common with that highly respectable 
 denomination, which meanwhile has arisen in our own country, 
 and so faithfully preserved and honored it among us, be. other 
 than pleasing to any, in either Church, who " profess and call 
 themselves Christians," or who are ready to rejoice at the 
 many and great things in which Christians can agree, as com- 
 pared with the few and small things in which they differ. 
 
 We conclude the whole subject with two inferences. The 
 one is, that the liturgical question has already been exhausted, 
 so far as discussion could exhaust it, by a former age. The 
 time for mere argument has gone by. In these articles we 
 have presented, not without some needful exaggeration, it may 
 be, a side which we Presbyterians have but seldom viewed. 
 
48 DIRECTORY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP, ETC. 
 
 We know very well what strong reasonings can be brought 
 from the opposite side; but we know also that no reasonings 
 that could now be brought from either side would equal those 
 of the disputants who were once so terribly in earnest, as to 
 add battles to their books, diplomacy to their logic, and mar- 
 tyrdom to their orthodoxy. 
 
 The other inference is, that the whole question is one of the 
 unsolved problems which the Old World has bequeathed to the 
 New. Although so thoroughly canvassed there, yet it was at 
 length settled only by the strong arm of the law, and in a man- 
 ner that posterity here refuses to accept as final or satisfac- 
 tory. The Directory of the Established Church of Scotland, 
 and the Liturgy of the Established Church of England, the 
 several fruits of a sectarian warfare, that would permit neither 
 to live but by exterminating the other, cannot now be viewed, 
 in the light of facts around us, as other than rash extremes, 
 from which the free churches of this land are already verging 
 towards a substantial unity, in the midst of trivial diversity. 
 
 On the 24th of August last, in the city of London, but out 
 of the Church of England, was commemorated the bi-centen- 
 nary of that black day in her saints' calendar, the second St. 
 Bartholomew tragedy, which gave her the Prayer-book, with- 
 out the pledged alterations, at a cost of so many martyrs for 
 Presbyterian orthodoxy and spirituality. Should the same 
 work as here issued on the basis of their revision, and in their 
 name, do aught towards that spiritual "Act of Uniformity," 
 ■which neither covenants nor statutes could then compel, or now 
 retard, their testimony will not have been in vain. 
 
WM. S. & ALFRED MARTIEN HAVE IN PRESS, 
 
 THE BOOK 
 
 O F 
 
 COMMON PRAYER, 
 
 AND ADMINISTUATION OP TH! 
 
 SACRAMENTS. 
 
 OTHER RITES AND CEREMONIES OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 AS REVISKI> BT THE 
 
 ROYAL COMMISSION OF PRESBYTERIAN DIVINES 
 
 AT THE SAVOY CONFERENCE, A, D., 1661, 
 AND IN AGREBMENT WITH 
 
 THE DIRECTOEY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 EDITED BY 
 
 CHARLES W. SHIELDS, 
 
 PASTOR OP THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX, 
 
 CONTAINIHG THE DOCUMENTS OP THE PRESBYTERIAN REVISION, TOGETHEK WITH 
 THE editor's EXPLANATORY NOTES AND REFERENCES.